Trump Syllabus 3.0

1.24.2017

This course explores one of the most unanticipated events in modern political history: the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States of America. We ask three basic questions: How did Trump win? Where …

This course explores one of the most unanticipated events in modern political history: the election of Donald Trump to the presidency of the United States of America. We ask three basic questions: How did Trump win? Where (and whom) did he win? And why did he win? We devote equal time to each of these questions, breaking them down into 15 weekly topics. Each week starts with a primer article, followed by additional readings, data sources, and tools for further exploration.Beginning with the question of how, we survey readings that explain different voting patterns and which campaign strategies mattered most, along with other sources that offer up points for debate about the electoral process that brought Trump to power. Turning to the questions of where and whom, we move on to readings that map not just the state of Red State America, but also what has been called “the geography of despair,” the hollowed-out middle of Rust Belt and rural America where Trump gained enough slim victories to capture the presidency. Finally, we tackle the vexing debates about why Trump won. Was it a longing for an authoritarian leader? Racial resentment? Economic anxiety? Disgust for out-of-touch elites? All of the above? None of the above? Students, by engaging the readings and sources in this last part of the course, will answer these important questions for themselves.

Students will finish the course with a deeper understanding of this singular event and find themselves equipped with the knowledge and facts required to consider its implications for their own generation and for generations to come.

(Note to Reader: we tried to not duplicate readings that were included in some previous Trump syllabi, here and here. These other syllabi were prepared before the 2016 election and serve as excellent resources for anyone seeking greater historical and philosophical depth and more primary sources than we offer here.)

Stephen Ansolabehere and Nathaniel Persily, “Vote Fraud in the Eye of the Beholder: The Role of Public Opinion in the Challenge to Voter Identification Requirements,” Harvard Law Review, vol. 121, no. 7 (2008), pp. 1737–1774